No abstract

Current efforts to identify the treatment needs of juveniles typically examine girls as a homogeneous group and recommendations for gender-responsive services tend to generalize needs to all girls. Research on within-girl heterogeneity suggests that this approach is shortsighted as treatment needs vary among justice-involved girls; however, little is known about how treatment needs cluster in this population. Consequently, we used latent class analysis to identify treatment needs within a sample of 1,731 female adolescents charged in juvenile court in Washington State. The analysis identified four classes of need representing High Family Conflict and Trauma (20%), Complex Treatment Needs With Antisocial Peers (30%), Low Adverse Experiences With Substance Abuse Needs (38%), and Mental Health Needs With Strong Social Assets (10%). The findings are consistent with other community-based analyses of female treatment needs and distinct from male-oriented treatment recommendations. Implications for policies regarding appropriate services and service capacity for justice-involved girls are discussed.

Pair living and pair bonding are rare in mammals, and the mechanisms of their maintenance remain a puzzle. Titi monkeys, a ‘textbook example’ for ‘monogamous’ primates, have strong pair bonds and extensive male care. To investigate mechanisms of pair-bond maintenance, we studied seven wild groups of red titis ( Plecturocebus cupreus ) in Peruvian Amazonia over a period of 14 months. We analysed pair bonds by measuring proximity, grooming and approaches/leaves within pairs, and collected data on intergroup encounters. Females contributed to grooming more than males, especially during infant dependency, when most of the grooming within pairs was done by females. Females were also more active in controlling proximity between pair mates, making most of the approaches and leaves. Males, on the other hand, invested more in territorial defences. They participated in more intergroup encounters than females and were more active during these encounters. Our data is most consistent with the ‘male-services’ hypothesis for pair-bond maintenance, where a female contributes more to the proximity and affiliation maintenance while a male provides beneficial services.

As states increasingly establish the importance of evidence-based practice through policy and funding mandates, the definition of evidence-based practice can have a significant impact on investment decisions. Not meeting established criteria can mean a loss of funding for established programs and the implementation disruption of programs without a strong research base. Whether the definition of "evidence-based" is influenced by these high stakes contexts is an interesting question that can inform the larger field about the value and utility of evidence-based practice lists/inventories for disseminating knowledge. In this paper we review the development of the Washington State Inventory of Evidence-Based, Research-Based and Promising Practices as a case study for the process of defining evidence-based practice in a policy context. As part of this study we also present a comparison of other well-known evidence-based practice inventories and examine consistencies and differences in the process of identifying and developing program ratings.

The findings suggest that the consumption rate of an alcoholic beverage can be modulated by its alcohol content, and that the perceived pharmacological effect of the alcohol serves as an effective signal to alter drinking behaviour.